paleaswater's blog so long ago.The Blue'n'white bookstore has a bunch of Heian detective novels by I.J.Parker.
kickinpants gave me the first one way back in '04, but like everything else I read during that convalescence, I remember nothing of it at all. So I'm rereading Rashomon Gate to see if the rest are worth getting. Jury is out still, but what's obvious to me now is that this is the best Judge Dee pastiche I've ever read. Missing only is a Judge Dee figure; Sugawara Akitada is much less mmh magisterial, and no surprise, given that he's not a magistrate.Finished also the third Yashim mystery, The Bellini Card. Goodwin's titles confuse: there's no Bellini *card* in this, just as there was no snake *stone* in The Snake Stone. There is of course, again, a beautiful woman and much cooking; the cooking part intrigues me, the beautiful woman bit--- oh well. The plot was as twisty as The Snake Stone's; but whereas that one I could follow, pretty much this one left a few unanswered questions in my mind. Or at least-- 'is that at all likely?'s. I also agree with the goodreads readers who felt the absence of Yashim through much of the first half did the book no good.
Have also picked up two volumes of the Nightside series, possibly an addition to my Weird London reading, possibly a waste of time. I wait to see.
